“Xylourides are the youth brigade of Cretan Folk. Descendant of Cretan legends Nikos Xylouris, Psarantonis, Psaragiorgis and hailing from the epicentre of the movement in Anogeia in the mountains of Crete.
Xylourides is Adonis, Nikos and Apollonia Xylouris. Young trailblazers of an ancient art form, steeped in rigid discipline and carried down generations. Xylourides are not just caretakers of Cretan folk music, they are perhaps its finest working exponents. As they have matured from the children of legends and students of the craft, Nikos, Adonis and Apollonia have made it their own, infusing the modes and patterns of their father and grandfather with a hyper energy and youthful enthusiasm that is infectious and powerful, whilst also baring all the hallmarks of the strict traditions imparted by the wisdom of the elders.
The virtuosity of Nikos’ lyra, a fiddle-like instrument bowed but played with fingernails with blistering speed and frenzy plays counterpoint to Adonis’ lauto; a Cretan lute that requires farmers hands to wrench notes from its four strings that rhythmically propels and erupts into bursts of melody, all backed by the rhythmical pulse of Apollonia’s percussion. All three sing.
On Crete these performances can last 12 hours, long through the night and into the morning light as mountain spirits take hold and the hypnotic circular rapture of the Cretan dances erode time like a fever dream. Arm in arm the congregation rotate before makeshift stages that Xylourides occupy like a throne. This music in Greece is singular. Everyone knows it and loves it like pop music never existed.
Xylourides (who will also be perform around Australia in their punk form - Frenzee) were invited to close out the coveted 2024 Antipodes Festival in Melbourne to a packed Lonsdale Street receiving rave reviews.
Nikos, Adonis and Apollonia make their Factory Theatre debut on 12 February in what promises to be a mesmerising evening. “